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A sought-after domain name can sell for millions. Domain names don't have a fixed value and are based purely upon what a buyer is willing to pay for it. Although domain names are usually sold in a bidding format, you can estimate how much yours is worth by comparing it to similar websites that have recently been sold, and by assessing its traffic and keyword quality.

Domain Traffic

High-traffic websites generate more revenue, so the more traffic your domain attains, the more it will be worth. The most important form of traffic when determining domain value is direct traffic. This is because it's based purely on the name itself and how many people type it directly into their search bar. By assessing the analytics of your website, you can determine what percentage of people visit your website through direct traffic. This figure will show you roughly how much your domain name has made without influence from other traffic sources, giving you an approximate calculation of its worth.

Generic Value

The generic value is the quality of the domain name itself. There are a number of elements to take into account when judging the generic value, such as uniqueness, length, word count, special characters, spelling and suffix. For example, a special character such as a hyphen between words will lower the keyword quality. Top-level domain names are differentiated by the suffix and are the most valuable. Current top-level suffixes include .com, .gov, .org and .edu. Generic top-level domains are lower in the domain name hierarchy and include .biz, .info, and .ws. Generic top-level domains don't rank as well in the search engines, so unless they get a large amount of traffic, they won't be worth much. To calculate how much your domain name's generic value is, research domains that are currently for sale with the same suffix and similar keyword.

Valuation Services

There are a number of valuation services available for free over the Internet such as Valuate, Estibot and Domain Worth. These websites will automatically calculate your search engine traffic, direct traffic, keyword competition and domain quality and give you an estimate of what its worth. While these services can give you a rough idea of your domain value, they are not an accurate measure since they can't calculate how much money your domain is actually making.

Research Recent Sales

To get a more accurate valuation, research similar domains that attain roughly the same amount of traffic and find out how much they are being sold for. Domains are often sold through bidding websites such as Flippa (See Resources 4). When people sell websites through Flippa, they must verify their website analytics, how much money they are making, and the source of the revenue. Flippa allows users to view past sales and how much websites have been sold for. Comparing this information to your own website could give you an idea of how much it's worth.

About the Author

Based in London, Jake Redfield has been working as a video games designer since 2009. In addition, he has written articles for many computer based online and offline publications. Redfield holds a degree in computer game design from Newport University.